Police Moonlighting Pay Hikes 37%: Portugal Event Planners Must Adapt

The Portugal Ministry of Internal Administration has updated the pay table for police moonlighting, a step that immediately raises how much every security guard, sergeant and officer can charge when working concerts, football matches or local council events after hours – and increases the public bill for security.

Why This Matters

• Out-of-hours police pay jumps up to 37%, effective 25 February.

• Private organisers – from village fairs to stadiums – will absorb the new fees; taxpayers face higher costs only when the State hires.

• Four-hour shift now starts at €51.60 for the lowest rank; night and weekend work tops out at €85.96 for a senior officer.

• Local councils must amend security budgets immediately or risk service cancellations.

What Exactly Has Changed

A new decree, Portaria n.º 64/2026/1, published in the Diário da República on 10 February, replaces the 2017 table that many commanders said was "out of sync with market reality". Key numbers:

| Rank | Weekday 08:00-20:00 | Nights/Weekends ||------|---------------------|-----------------|| Guards & Agents | €51.60 (was €37.50) | €74.27 (was €54.00) || Sergeants & Chiefs | €54.34 | €77.03 || Officers | €60.51 | €85.96 |

Sports fixtures pay slightly less, but still rise by roughly a third. Payment is always booked in blocks of four hours and is exempt from normal overtime ceilings.

Why the Government Moved Now

The ministry argues that soaring demand for uniformed presence at public events – from winter carnival parades to sold-out Liga Portugal fixtures – risked draining patrol capacity if officers could earn more doing private gigs than regular shifts. By lifting the ceiling, the Cabinet hopes to retain experienced officers and keep the black-market "bico" economy in check.

At the same time, the 2026 State Budget earmarks €3.16 B for internal security, up 11.3% on last year. Around 74% of that money is salaries, meaning any tweak to allowances ripples quickly through national accounts.

Reaction Inside the Forces

Police unions greeted the decree with polite scepticism. The Associação Sindical dos Profissionais da Polícia said the raise "doesn’t fix early-career pay, nor the staffing shortage". The GNR’s officers’ association echoed that sentiment yet admitted the new amounts are "finally realistic" for weekend football duties, which often entail ten-hour marathons in full riot gear.

Commanders, speaking off the record, welcomed the move because it gives them a legal rate to quote when municipalities ask for last-minute reinforcement. "We used to haggle; now we open the book," one PSP district chief told this newspaper.

How Portugal Compares Abroad

Portugal was paying below-market fees versus many EU peers. London’s Metropolitan Police charge up to £78 (€91) for comparable work, while French gendarmerie overtime hovers around €80 for late hours. Even after the new table, Portugal remains mid-pack – a deliberate choice, Treasury officials say, to keep festivals affordable without sparking a recruitment drain into private security.

What This Means for Residents

Residents will feel the change in three everyday scenarios:

Ticket prices for major events may edge up because organisers pass on security costs. Promoters calculate an extra €14 per guard per shift; a first-division football match typically hires 120 officers.

Local councils planning summer festas must re-bid security contracts or top up budgets, otherwise police presence could be scaled back and events curtailed.

Regular policing should improve: with higher lawful rates, officers have less incentive to moonlight informally, freeing commanders to schedule them for neighbourhood patrols.

Homeowners and small shops likely won’t notice a direct tax hike, because the State mainly uses regular shifts, not paid extras, for day-to-day patrols. The burden lands where optional policing is ordered – stadiums, marathons, film shoots.

The Numbers Behind the Bill

The Finance Ministry has not issued a standalone impact note. However, internal projections, seen by this paper, estimate €4.7 M in additional annual spending if the central government continues to hire extra police at the current volume. That figure can be absorbed inside the €2.35 B personnel line already approved, officials insist.

Private sector demand is harder to quantify. In 2025, the Lisbon Metropolitan Command logged 437,000 police hours sold to third parties. Applying the new rates would add roughly €6 M to customer invoices across the region.

Next Steps and Deadlines

• The new scale becomes enforceable 15 days after publication, so midnight of 25 February.

• Municipalities must update digital requisition platforms; contracts signed before that date remain valid until 31 March, after which the new figures apply automatically.

• The Ministry has promised a review mechanism every two years, tied to inflation and policing demand.

Bottom Line for Expats & Investors

For most households the decree is background noise. Yet anyone staging an event – a wine fair in the Douro, a tech meetup in Porto, or a tourist-heavy surf festival on the west coast – must budget with the revised table. Failure to do so can stall licensing, as authorities will not rubber-stamp safety plans built on outdated costs.

Investors in the thriving Portuguese live-events sector should recalibrate their P&L models: security often ranks right after artist fees and stage rental. On the upside, better-paid officers tend to show up on time and stay longer, reducing risk and insurance premiums.

The Wider Pay Puzzle

Remember, this decree sits within a larger reshuffle: rookie PSP and GNR salaries will rise 43% over 2023 levels by December, reaching €1,704 after allowances. Combined, the measures aim to make policing a viable career again without resorting to eternal overtime.

For now, the immediate task for organisers, councils and even Neighbourhood Watch programmes is simple: download the new table, do the maths, and lock the figures into your 2026 budgets.